Genotoxicity produced by disease and drugs

In humans, DNA damage or genotoxicity may be caused by exposure to outsideagents like radiation, pesticides, combustion of hydrocarbons products as well asantineoplastic drugs. But also DNA damage could be come from inside of the body,determined mainly for excessive free radicals production generated by some diseaseprocess and that their increase exceed the natural defense systems responsible forremoving free radicals. In either case, the important thing is to identify the genotoxicityand try to protect the body, this may as simply as removing the source of exposure orprovide protection against such agents. In this chapter, we address some ways of how it has been identified genotoxiccompounds by direct analyses, basically micronucleogenics ones expressed quantitativelyby number of micronuclei in peripheral blood erythrocytes and micronucleated cells fromoral mucosa, the genotoxicity of some antineoplastic drugs as well as the identification ofsome diseases that are "genotoxic" to the individual that suffers it and that under certainconditions can also result in potentially teratogenic for children to mothers who hadsuffered some of these disorders. � 2009 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved